Identity theft happens both online and offline. One of the ways that identity thieves collect personal and financial information about members of the public offline, is to sift through carelessly discarded trash. Many people throw bank statements, utility bills and other potentially sensitive documentation away without shredding it first. An identity thief can find enough about someone - just from their dustbin or mailbox - to steal their identity. Identity thieves steal personal and financial information online more purposely, with phishing attempts for example - but it is often as a result of carelessness and/or complacency, regarding personal and financial information.

However In the near future, almost everything will be online, all the transactions, purchases, reservations, even work. But there is a big problem; the ¨Online Thieves¨. People have to be really aware of this issue, because it´s becoming America's fastest growing crime problem. How to identify an identity theft? and how to avoid it?? Big question! here some advise:

Another important step in avoiding online identity theft is making sure that you have the best security software products installed on your PC:

* Use antivirus protection and a firewall
* Get antispyware software protection

Good Luck And Be Safe!

Last edited by wserra on Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
Reason:A few days ago, I edited a spam link from this post with a polite note about our no-commercial policy. S/He comes back and edits it back in. Nitwit spammer gone.

You must avoid giving out personal information over the phone, in emails and through the mail unless it is very secure. Even with sending personal information in an email, spy-ware or computer viruses might pick this up. Be sure to have a secure connection, a firewall, malware and virus protection on your computers.

Admittedly this is not the usual Quatlos topic, but I think a little reminder to practice safe cybernetics is appreciated.

Quatlos has collected tons of examples of internet frauds, mostly from make-believe lotteries and inheritances, and several of those Nigerian scams that demonstrate that there's always free cheese in a mousetrap.

There are a good many high quality anti-virus programs available for free. I suggest going to CNET.com and ZDNet.com and MajorGeeks.com as these are sources for downloading freeware already known to be both safe and effective. I particularly liked MalwareBytes and 360 Amigo. MalwareBytes helped cure the worst virus I ever encountered - the dreaded "Antivirus2010" * (maybe by now it's changed its name, it used to be Antivirus2009), which pops up pretending to be generated by your own Windows system, telling you you've been infected with a virus and then pretending to run a scan while, in fact, it's loading itself into your system with a sort of thugware that won't let you do anything on the internet unless and until you pay them about $50 online immediately. But it is necessary to have MalwareBytes on your system first, because once Antivirus2010 takes hold you won't be able to download anything.

One advice that was given to me was to never carry around your Birth Certificate and S.S.N./S.I.N. card in your wallet. With those two pieces of ID, they can even have a picture ID such as a passport made in your name with their picture on it.